EDMONTON – One day after the union representing more than 1,000 workers employed by CapitalCare celebrated reaching a new collective agreement, it now says the employer has rejected the deal.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) said after an 8-month-long contract negotiation with Capital Health, the 1,085 Licensed Practical Nurses and Health Care Aides, through the union, reached a new collective agreement through mediation Wednesday.
“I’d like to congratulate the employer on their cooperative and constructive approach to this settlement,” said Alberta Union of Provincial Employees staff negotiator, Terry Agoto, at the time.
However, the following day, AUPE says CapitalCare, a publicly-owned continuing care organization and direct subsidiary of Alberta Health Services (AHS), rejected the contract.
“To reject a mediated agreement at the last minute without any rationale is a slap in the face. It’s a dangerous provocation,” said Guy Smith, President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) in a news release.
However, a spokesperson for CapitalCare says it only disagreed with a small part of the deal.
“They seem to have misunderstood what we rejected in the mediator’s report,” says Bernadette DeSantis of CapitalCare.
“What we rejected in the mediator’s report had to do with the issue of flexible spending accounts. The union was asking for the same flexible spending account that Alberta Health Services offers to its employees. And, while we are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alberta Health Services, we are not Alberta Health Services. We are leaders in the continuing care sector.”
Get breaking National news
“You have to reject the whole report, you can’t just reject one thing,” explained DeSantis. “But the issue is not wages; it’s the flexible spending account.”
CapitalCare and the union agreed to wage increases of three percent in each year of the three-year agreement.
When AUPE initially announced the new collective agreement, it said the deal would bring industry-standard wages to the workers; providing pay roughly in line with their colleagues performing the same work for Alberta Health Services.
DeSantis says industry-standard pay was never an issue of contention.
“This is not about wages,” said DeSantis. “What we rejected in the mediator’s statement had nothing to do with wages. Us and the union had agreed to a three percent increase… in each year of the three year contract.”
In fact, CapitalCare doesn’t understand why the union issued the second news release claiming the employer rejected the deal.
“We’ve had very good relationships with the union,” said DeSantis. “We were quite happy with the way negotiations were going so we’re quite surprised.”
She said both sides are now in a 14-day cooling off period before they’ll return to negotiations with the mediator.
“There’s no need for family members to be concerned that care is in any way in jeopardy,” added DeSantis. “This is a labour dispute between an employer and a union and really has nothing to do with the care on the front line.”
Contract and labour disputes have led to several strikes and lockouts at Alberta seniors’ homes recently.
Workers at the Waterford of Summerlea seniors’ facility in west Edmonton went on strike Friday morning.
“We served strike notice three days ago,” said Smith, who also represents workers at that facility. “We’re unable to negotiate a collective agreement. This is the first agreement for these workers, they joined AUPE about a year and a half ago, and we’ve been in negotiations ever since then.”
The AUPE says the 65 nursing and support workers will remain on the picket line 6am to 6pm daily until further notice. It says employees have been trying to solve issues with the employer, Chantelle Management Ltd., a B.C.-based company, at the bargaining table, but says the employer has been delaying and stalling progress.
On January 28, a strike and lockout of 130 employees began at Aspen Ridge seniors’ care facility in Red Deer. The employer in that case is Symphony Senior Living.
More than a dozen nurses at the Devonshire Care Centre in south Edmonton went on strike at the end of December. Their employer is Park Place Seniors Living.
Smith attributes this kind of activity the number of new care facilities, which in turn, attract more workers looking for union representation.
“We’re organizing a lot of these new sites all the time, and that means that there’s a potential for more job action.”
Over the summer, staff at the Rivera seniors’ care centre and the Hardisty Care Centre went on strike.
With files from Vinesh Pratap
Follow @Emily_Mertz
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.